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Tim Nolan wrote:
1. He refers to etheral MATTER as being an intellectual reality but later statements imply that the vibrations of this matter exist: The other kind of human knowledge is intellectual -- that is to say, it is a reality of the intellect; it has no outward form and no place and is not perceptible to the senses. For example, the power of intellect is not sensible; none of the inner qualities of man is a sensible thing; on the contrary, they are intellectual realities. So love is a mental reality and not sensible; for this reality the ear does not hear, the eye does not see, the smell does not perceive, the taste does not discern, the touch does not feel. Even ethereal matter, the forces of which are said in physics to be heat, light, electricity and magnetism, is an intellectual reality, and is not sensible. In the same way, nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality and is not sensible; the human spirit is an intellectual, not sensible reality. In explaining these intellectual realities, one is obliged to express them by sensible figures because in exterior existence there is nothing that is not material. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 83) Reflect that light is the _expression_ of the vibrations of the etheric matter: the nerves of the eye are affected by these vibrations, and sight is produced. The light of the lamp exists through the vibration of the etheric matter; so also does that of the sun, but what a difference between the light of the sun and that of the stars or the lamp! (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 150) If we wish to deny everything that is not sensible, then we must deny the realities which unquestionably exist. For example, ethereal matter is not sensible, though it has an undoubted existence. The power of attraction is not sensible, though it certainly exists. From what do we affirm these existences? From their signs. Thus this light is the vibration of that ethereal matter, and from this vibration we infer the existence of ether. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 190) For instance, the nature of ether is unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat, light and electricity being the waves thereof. By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven. (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel, p. 16) Similarly in the world of being there exist forces unseen of the eye, such as the force of ether previously mentioned, that cannot be sensed, that cannot be seen. However, from the effects it produceth, that is from its waves and vibrations, light, heat, electricity appear and are made evident. (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel, p. 20) 2. The diameter of the sun is 109 times that of the earth; the mass of the sun is 333,000 times that of the earth. The stars are endless and innumerable, and modern mathematicians have established and proved scientifically that the globe of the sun is estimated to be about one million and a half times greater than the earth, and each of the fixed stars to be a thousand times larger than the sun. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 111) 3. Suggests Lamarckian inheritance; blood is not the germ cell. The variety of inherited qualities comes from strength and weakness of constitution -- that is to say, when the two parents are weak, the children will be weak; if they are strong, the children will be robust. In the same way, purity of blood has a great effect; for the pure germ is like the superior stock which exists in plants and animals. For example, you see that children born from a weak and feeble father and mother will naturally have a feeble constitution and weak nerves; they will be afflicted and will have neither patience, nor endurance, nor resolution, nor perseverance, and will be hasty; for the children inherit the weakness and debility of their parents. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 212) 4. Covalent bonding is an inherent property. Oxygen doesn't exist in an atomic form but as a molecule O2. Now, formation is of three kinds and of three kinds only: accidental, necessary and voluntary. The coming together of the various constituent elements of beings cannot be accidental, for unto every effect there must be a cause. It cannot be compulsory, for then the formation must be an inherent property of the constituent parts and the 17 inherent property of a thing can in no wise be dissociated from it, such as light that is the revealer of things, heat that causeth the expansion of elements and the solar rays which are the essential property of the sun. Thus under such circumstances the decomposition of any formation is impossible, for the inherent properties of a thing cannot be separated from it. The third formation remaineth and that is the voluntary one, that is, an unseen force described as the Ancient Power, causeth these elements to come together, every formation giving rise to a distinct being. (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel, p. 14) 5. Why object to evolution if it only deals with alteration of form and not essence? He doesn't deny that forms change. Isn't that all evolutionary biologists are talking about? We also see in the vegetable kingdom that the original species of the genus do not change and alter, but the form, color and bulk will change and alter, or even progress. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 192)
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- : Re: Science and Religion Tim Nolan
- : Re: Science and Religion Tim Nolan
- Re: : Re: Science and Religion M Chase
- Re: : Re: Science and Religion firestorm
